Why Antigone Was Right After All: Simone Weil’s Mystical Hermeneutics

Publication Type

Book Chapter

Year of Publication

2001

Author

Meaney, Marie Cabaud

Editor

Butterworth, Emily Robson, Kathryn

Book

Shifting Borders: Theory and Identity in French Literature

Series Volume

12

Pages

123-38

Publisher

Peter Lang

Place Published

Oxford

Language

English

Series Title

Modern French Identities

Keywords

Antigone
justice
mysticism
Sophocles

Annotation

Cabaud Meaney defends Weil’s interpretation of Sophocles’ Antigone, defending it against those who would ignore or dismiss it. She offers an in-depth discussion of Weil’s views on justice moving beyond her work on Antigone to draw on a broad range of her religious and political thought. While never denying the ‘anachronistic Christian mystical’ nature of Weil’s interpretation, Cabaud goes on to argue that such an interpretation may well be “more adequate to modern times than others” (p. 138).